House Tour: AT Europe: London - Mike & Bea's Raised Kitchen

Mike and Bea live in a rented first floor Georgian flat in Islington that was once the home of Tim Sloan of London-based Levitate Architects (who brought us The Amazing Staircase). “I lived in the flat for several years, so it was designed for me,” Tim says. The most intriguing feature of the apartment is a clever raised kitchen unit that takes advantage of vertical space and keeps the mess out of eye-view from the living room. “The kitchen design always polarizes views,” says Tim. “People generally either love it or hate it.”

“We love the kitchen,” says Mike, who has rented the flat with his partner Bea since last September, “mostly because it’s just so odd! We’re both architects as well, and this is the kind of work I would do.” The kitchen has pull-out storage drawers that also serve as step ladders (seen in the opening photo), and can be stowed out of sight as seen above. Everything a cook could want is built into the unit, which also has plenty of built-in storage, an integrated ironing board, and a washing machine on the side. Mike points out that the raised kitchen makes it “feel like a different room.”

Mike and Bea are still paring down their shared belongings and haven’t set up the dining room table yet. The other side of the room is a living area that they’ve furnished simply with white furniture that matches the all-white scheme, filling up the built-in storage with plenty of books and a computer station. The bedroom also has built-in open storage that takes advantage of the high ceilings. To make the space more streamlined, there are no floorboards or moldings and the doors have a shadow gap that adds interest. The bathroom, located in the center of the flat, is lit with light from the living room that flows in through a discreet internal window built high-up.